Child Welfare Chief Accused of Foster Home Intervention

Sheriff’s deputies are investigating allegations that Peter Digre, head of the county’s child welfare agency, attempted to thwart his own staff’s closure of an allegedly abusive foster home run by a woman who is one of his strong personal and political allies.

The closing of the foster home in La Puente came in December, after years of complaints and accusations by foster children and social workers that Sandra Rodriguez hit and neglected children, even subjecting a few to bizarre “voodoo” rituals.

According to reports being reviewed by detectives, Digre had two of his senior assistants intervene after his agency targeted Rodriguez.

The Sheriff’s Department refused to discuss the nature of its investigation late Friday, but two sources said that it parallels a probe being conducted by the county auditor-controller’s office.

An official at the auditor’s office said that “a long list of witnesses” will be questioned about the accusations, made by at least one employee to a whistle-blower hotline.

“We are looking into whether there was any obstruction on the director’s part of the recommendations by his people to not place any more children in that [foster] home,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Digre called the allegations against him “absurd.” He said he actually asked the sheriff to step into the budding controversy involving him and one of the county’s most prominent and active foster parents.

Acknowledging that two top officials from his office reviewed the closure of Rodriguez’s home, Digre added: “Did they do anything to change anything? No, they made no changes.”

The foster home remains closed, with three foster children placed in other homes and Rodriguez’s two young sons also taken from her care after allegations that they too might be endangered.

Rodriguez strongly denied the abuse allegations during a short telephone interview Wednesday. She declined to go into detail. But before ending the conversation, she said: “One thing I do want you to know is, there are a lot of innocent people in jail because of things that were not true.”

The latest controversy threatens to undercut Digre’s already tenuous standing with his bosses on the Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the issues need to be thoroughly reviewed and Digre given a fair hearing. He added: “I do not know about this but I do know about a lot of other things and a lot of turmoil in that department. There is a lot of straw building on the camel’s back.”

Rodriguez, 29, was a steadfast political supporter of Digre, even speaking at a Board of Supervisors meeting on his behalf. At the time, last October, Digre was under fire and his agency accused of delaying payments to foster children just to balance its books.

The La Puente woman became a foster parent in 1991. Over the years she joined Futuros Hispanos Para Los Ninos, an association that represents the interests of more than 200 Latino foster parents. Eventually, she became the group’s president.

Top officials in the Department of Children and Family Services credited her with energizing the organization, one of dozens that represent the county’s foster parents. They said she organized classes and parties and helped answer questions about child welfare policy for her members.

In the last two years, Rodriguez sponsored a quinceanera, or coming-out party, for teenage girls in the foster care system. At the ceremonies, she committed to become the girls’ godmother, and Digre, 55, signed on as their godfather.

Rodriguez taught model parenting classes, one of many people to do so for the department. On another occasion, Digre had her instruct social workers on the needs of foster parents.

Shown a picture of Digre, neighbors said that he had visited Rodriguez’s home many times. Foster children placed in the home also said they knew Digre from regular visits, two sources told The Times.

Although Digre acknowledged that he had worked with Rodriguez, he said their involvement was not much greater than he has with many of the dozens of foster parent activists in the county. He said he had only visited her home once, about two years ago, before one of the quinceanera ceremonies.

When the children’s services chief was under fire last October, Rodriguez told the Board of Supervisors that Digre was “a great director . . . who only does what is best for foster children.”

But, even as she spoke at that public meeting, Rodriguez was under intense scrutiny by investigators from Digre’s own department. State officials had filed a formal accusation five days before, calling for the revocation of Rodriguez’s foster care permit.

In fact, the problems and accusations had begun much earlier.

From 1993 through last year, there were 10 complaints to the county’s Child Abuse Hotline and several other complaints to the state, alleging abuse and neglect in the Rodriguez foster home, according to the county report that led to closure of the home in December. That 14-page report was written by the county agency’s Out of Home Care Evaluation Unit.

Among the details in that report:

* In 1993, the state Department of Social Services, which licenses foster homes, looked into the serious injuries suffered by a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy. Rodriguez allegedly offered conflicting stories about how the injuries occurred. Sheriff’s deputies did not substantiate physical abuse allegations against the foster mother.

* In 1995 and 1996, foster children were removed from the home because of roach infestations and other substandard conditions. Authorities left other foster children in the home, for reasons the report does not explain.

* In 1997, a psychotherapist reported allegations about a series of strange rituals in the home, including that Rodriguez had rolled an egg over the body of one child to determine if she was “evil” and that she had slaughtered a chicken in front of children to scare them. The three siblings who made those reports and repeated them to investigators from the children’s agency said they were also hit with sticks, shoes and other objects. They said they were also tied to a tree as punishment.

Both the county and state investigators substantiated the physical abuse allegations. With the three siblings already out of the home and back with their biological family, four other foster children had moved into the Rodriguez home. Only one of them was removed by her social worker, even after the abuse allegations were sustained, the county report says.

Rodriguez blamed the entire series of allegations involving the siblings on the 15-year-old, who she told investigators had fabricated the stories, according to records of an interview she gave investigators from the children’s agency last year.

In mid-1998, the county’s Out of Home Care Evaluation Unit again “sustained” physical abuse allegations against Rodriguez, after an 11-year-old girl in her care said she had been hit and her hair pulled. The child was also infested with head lice, which Rodriguez told investigators she treated with Miracle Whip salad dressing because she did not believe in prescription medications.

The litany of allegations finally came to a head last Nov. 6, when county investigators arrived at Rodriguez’s doorstep at 6 a.m. They said in their report that the home was filthy and, again, roach-ridden.

A month after the surprise morning visit, Digre’s top deputy signed an order removing three foster children from the home. Acting as director while Digre was out of town, Paul Freedlund also ordered that the agency place no more children with Rodriguez, lest they be endangered, according to the county report.

One high-ranking DCFS official conceded that the state and county might have moved more quickly against the home.

“Some things got by in the past that shouldn’t have and maybe they didn’t put it together,” said Gene Gilden, the administrator who oversees the county’s Out of Home Care Evaluation Unit. Gilden said changes have been made since she took over the unit a year ago, to assure better cooperation between the agencies.

The case did not end with Freedlund’s action, however, because Digre returned from his trip and ordered a full review of the case.

Two sources familiar with that order said Digre was furious that the home had been closed in his absence and wanted to know why. Digre, and others who were present, denied he was upset but rather surprised because of Rodriguez’s good public reputation.

In any event, Digre ordered an ombudsman from his office and deputy director Amaryllis Watkins to visit Rodriguez and review the matter, sources said. Watkins, Digre and others insisted that the review was not a special favor.

The supervisor who headed the original investigation was furious that her work was being reviewed, two sources told The Times. She thought Digre was trying to supersede her action, the sources said.

The supervisor was not in the office Friday and could not be reached.

Other top officials privately expressed dismay and embarrassment that Digre and others were promoting Rodriguez as a model, even while the agency’s own investigators were uncovering the alleged abuse.

One employee close to Digre protested: “This was a person that people suspected could be a problem and yet [Digre] brought her to the office, brought her to events, visited her house and then she speaks out for him at the Board [of Supervisors].”

Times Staff Writers Jocelyn Stewart and Tina Daunt contributed to this story.